Google cofounder Larry Page blasted as unfair recent interference tests of prototype devices that would deliver wireless broadband on unused television spectrum.

The tests, conducted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, measured interference with the wrong signals, Page said Wednesday.

The tests attempted to measure interference with wireless microphones during a professional football game in Maryland, but those microphones were operating on spectrum also occupied by much stronger TV signals, said Page, speaking at a Washington, D.C., rally to promote the use of so-called white spaces spectrum.

The protocol devices would be designed to operate in the white spaces, spectrum designated for television stations but unused. It would be "impossible" for the white spaces prototype to detect the weak signal that a wireless microphone puts out when a much more powerful TV station is using the same spectrum, Page said.

"There's no way to do that," he said. "You're going to detect the television station, not the wireless microphone. What I'm telling you is, the test was rigged."

Asked if he thought the FCC rigged the test, Page said he did not. He didn't elaborate on who rigged the test, but one possible implication is that the wireless microphone maker did. The National Association of Broadcasters and wireless microphone makers have opposed new white-spaces devices, saying there's a significant possibility of interference with their signals.

Some mobile phone carriers have also opposed opening up white spaces spectrum to new broadband devices. That spectrum could compete with mobile service on spectrum that carriers paid billions of dollars for. The arguments over the white spaces have grown increasingly heated in recent months.

Page called for the FCC to approve the use of the white spaces for broadband devices before November's presidential and congressional elections. And he suggested that the FCC was putting white spaces devices through a more rigorous testing process than it has with other devices. Generally, the FCC allows new unlicensed devices to be built and to operate in areas designated for unlicensed devices as long as they don't interfere with other devices, Page said.

"There's nobody in the world who can truthfully tell you there's no way to produce a device that doesn't interfere," Page said. "That's just garbage -- not true."

An FCC spokesman didn't immediately return a message asking for comment on Page's statement.

But Shure, a maker of wireless microphones, disputed Page's description of the FCC's August test in Landover, Maryland.

"The FCC's wireless microphone field tests were carefully planned and thoroughly executed based on sound engineering science and real-world operating scenarios," said Mark Brunner, Shure's senior director for public and industry relations. "These tests were open to the public, and those who choose to discount the results -- which have not yet been published -- had every option to be present and to witness them for themselves."